How to properly enter the church and how to behave in it.

When to go to the temple?

There is a joke in church circles: don’t wait for delivery to the temple, go there yourself. By delivery we mean a funeral service, and, as you know, it happens posthumously. Therefore, it is worth thinking about and visiting the church while you still have the strength and opportunity to come there with your own feet.

How to choose the time? In fact, everything is elementary. There are two options for visiting the temple: outside the Divine service and coming to the service.

How to enter the church correctly if the first option is chosen?

1. Find out the opening hours of the nearest temple.
2. We choose a moment and go into it.

Literally one or two and you're done. The same goes for attending a church service. First we find out when it starts, and then we simply arrive at the temple at the appointed time.

Organization of accounting activities in the Church

According to Art. 6 Law No. 129-FZ, responsibility for the organization and maintenance of accounting lies with the heads of the organization. Table 1 provides answers to key questions regarding church governance and accounting.

Table 1 – Management and accounting in the Russian Orthodox Church:

Let's go to church

The question of how to properly enter a church may seem outdated. We all, more or less, encounter Christian traditions. Women know that they need to wear a headscarf to church. On the contrary, men are supposed to enter the church vaults without a headdress. You may not even know about clothes and other additions, they say, they go to church to see God, and He looks at our hearts, and not at jeans and T-shirts.

Let's look into this issue. The Lord said that a woman should not wear men's clothing. Our favorite trousers and jeans, although they became firmly established in the ladies' wardrobe, were not originally women's clothing. They were intended for men. Therefore, when planning to visit the temple, just follow these rules:

• A woman must wear a skirt or dress. Moreover, the skirt should be long enough - knee-length or below.
• You should dress modestly, as closed as possible. Leave T-shirts with short sleeves, sweaters with a neckline, and transparent blouses for going out. Church is the house of God; it is more appropriate to wear a closed shirt with long sleeves here than a provocative blouse.
• Please refrain from using lipstick. If you decide to venerate the icons, but you can’t, you’ll stain the image. Ideally, when visiting a temple, it is not advisable to use cosmetics at all.
• How should men enter church, what should they wear? No shorts, T-shirts, wrestling shorts or other revealing clothing. Jeans or trousers, a long-sleeve shirt, and in the cold season - a sweater or jumper. Modest, simple and without any problems, because every man has the listed clothes.
• And again about women. During times of impurity (critical days), you cannot go to temple. Wait a week, as required by church regulations, and then boldly go to the house of God.
• When getting ready for the service, arrive early, 15-20 minutes before the start. You will have time to calmly write and submit notes, buy candles, and venerate icons. If you are late for the service, then stand quietly in one place, there is no need to walk around the temple, kissing the icons. This can be done after the service.

Roman, 48 years old

Candlestick of the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

I became a candle maker very simply: they offered me, but I didn’t refuse. At that time, I completed my military service, received three higher educations in economics, and successfully worked as the manager of a foreign car dealership. He also taught several original courses at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University.

My parents baptized me in infancy, and from then on the temple became a part of my life. Adults took me there, and they taught me a respectful attitude towards the Church and faith. He began to come to services on his own already at a conscious age - at first he simply stopped by on the way, then this began to happen more and more often.

When I regularly went to church as an ordinary parishioner, I never thought of working there. One day, our candle maker urgently needed to leave his position, and the priests were looking for a replacement to take his place. I didn’t need money from them, and they didn’t have a budget for this function, so we quickly found a common language, and I started working on my only day off. This is very similar to the movie character Forrest Gump, who worked as a gardener and had a decent fortune.

The position of a candle maker is not a job for me and certainly not a profession. It is rather a service that consists of helping the people serving in the temple and those who came to it . In general, this can be compared to the activities of a sailor on the upper deck of a small ocean schooner: helping passengers, other sailors and the captain. And at other times, scrub the deck.

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

To work as a candle maker, all you need is a little life experience , humility and a sense of humor. You also need to be able to sort notes, sweep the floor, and feel free to take out the trash.

There is an opinion among people that only people who have failed in life and have nothing else to do work behind the candle box. Therefore, you need to be prepared for a condescending attitude and try to react kindly.

One day, an elderly Mexican couple came here - husband and wife. They were very interested in the history of the temple and asked many questions about faith. We said goodbye to them, and then they came three hours later and gave me a small laminated icon of the Mother of God - in their homeland this is a revered Christian image. It turned out that this is the icon of the Mother of God “Increasing the Mind”, only they have it in green tones, and we have it in red.

In my free time I grow oaks, apple trees, and walnut trees. It captivated me so much that I had to leave Moscow for the village. You understand that the trees on the loggia do not grow as expected. I also respect amateur ballroom dancing and paint coffee and tea cups. The latter takes a lot of time and effort, but museums and private galleries are already asking for my works to be exhibited.

Learning to enter the temple

How should a woman, man and child enter the church? The rules are the same for everyone. Approach the temple and see the domes - cross yourself three times and make three bows from the waist. At this moment, it is necessary to pray internally or turn to the Lord in your own words. For example, thank Him for bringing you to church.

Opposite the entrance to the monastery there is most often an altar. It can be immediately recognized by its beautiful gates and location on a hill. Cross yourself three times again and make three bows from the waist. After which you can go to the church shop for candles.

How does the church record target revenues and document them?

The church receives targeted revenues from both individuals and legal entities (including the state) on a voluntary basis; An important point in accounting for such receipts is their purpose, the form in which they were received - to a current account, through non-cash receipts, to the cash desk in cash from individuals or in the form of materials and fixed assets.

The purpose of the proceeds is determined by the donor himself (the purpose of the payment states “Voluntary donation for... (purpose of the donation)”) or, if the donor finds it difficult to determine the purpose, an additional primary document is drawn up - an order from the rector of the church on the use of funds for a purpose not determined by the donor.

Accounting takes place using account 86 “Targeted receipts”, to which sub-accounts can be opened related to the purpose of spending these funds (for example, 86.1 “Statutory activities”, 86.1.1 “General church activities”, 86.1.2. “Construction and restoration activities” and etc.). Table 2 discusses the main accounting entries used in accounting for church earmarked revenues.

Table 2 – Accounting transactions for account 86 “Target receipts”:

An example of calculating humanitarian aid and other targeted receipts to the current account and to the Church’s treasury

Example 1. At the beginning of June, the Russian Orthodox Church received targeted humanitarian aid in the amount of 200 thousand rubles. Of this amount, the Church distributed 160 thousand rubles. At the end of the month, 75 thousand rubles were taken from the donation box. Also, at the end of the month, the current account of this NPO received an amount equal to 55 thousand rubles. Business transactions made by the treasurer (accountant) are presented in Table 3.

Table 3 - Business transactions of the Church for June.

Behavior during worship

We found out how to enter the church. Now let's talk about how to behave during worship.

We have already indicated that being late for it is disrespect for God. It’s worth arriving early to have time to do everything you need. When you light candles, pray in your own words. Make requests to God, the Mother of God and the saints in front of whose images you place candles.

By the way, how to install them? First, lightly scorch the bottom of the candle, this is necessary so that the wax melts a little and it stands evenly in the candlestick. Then light the wick itself and place the burning candle in the candlestick. Cross yourself twice, make two bows (from the waist), kiss the image. Walk away, again apply the sign of the cross, make one bow and talk with the saint.

As soon as the priest in the altar says the words: “Blessed is our God, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages,” know that the service has begun. And you cannot move around the temple until the end of the service. Choose a place for yourself, stand, listen to the singing, pray to God along with the rest of the people.

Church is a place of work: prepare your soul for temptation

The Church is the Body of Christ, but it carries out and maintains its earthly existence, taking the form of an organization - with leaders and subordinates, a personnel department and accounting department, material resources and finances. For hundreds of thousands of people today, the Church has become a place of work, a source of modest (usually) livelihood. These are employees of diocesan administrations with all their current sections and divisions, and journalists of church media, and temple workers... First of all, we are talking, of course, about the laity, but priests, in a certain sense, are also employees of the organization: subordinates and superiors of their subordinates.

Photo: Abbot Peter (Barbashov)

What changes for a person when the Church becomes his place of work? Are our relationships at this job different from those in any private or government agency? How to combine Christian love with the functions of an administrator responsible for a specific area of ​​work? Is this even real? How to respond to conflicts and other manifestations of human sinfulness in our “spiritual department”?

Let’s start with these very manifestations. At any job, conflicts, squabbles, denunciations, and the like are extremely undesirable. Any person is hurt by the boss’s irritability, harshness and rudeness, unfair accusations, indifference to his personal situation, envy and jealousy of colleagues...

How I would like to write now that this is not the case in the Church! Alas. In the Church, in addition to many other things, in addition to something completely different, there is this too. Not only does it exist, but it also hurts much deeper, it is experienced much more tragically than anywhere else. Why? Because the Church, in its essence, is not an employing organization, but our family, spiritual and blood. Blood, for through the Communion of the Holy Mysteries we are united bodily with Christ and with each other. Spiritual, because being in the Church itself implies a spiritual relationship. What do we expect from our own family, from loved ones? We are waiting for the necessary and irreplaceable: love, protection, understanding and support. Who will give us all this if not the family? It’s a disaster if this is not in the family, if a person feels bad at home. It is a tragedy if he feels hopeless in the Church.

But on whom, on what does it depend - is it bad for a person in the Church or good? And who determines whether a person in the family is good or bad - from everyone or from himself? An adult is always responsible for the situation in his family, no matter what the characters of his household members are. If he can only complain and be angry with them, he will never find peace in his home, nor will he find protection from the world in the other meaning of the word.

Photo: Abbot Peter (Barbashov)

What advice should I give to a person who, for one reason or another, feels bad in the Church and, specifically, at church work? First, ask yourself, have you done what is in your power: have you tried to make others feel good around you, so that peace and mutual understanding reign in your God-saved diocesan department? I had to observe people who, being wounded, suffering acute mental pain, found the strength to support and warm others, and thereby found support and consolation for themselves. I know people, including priests, who have accomplished such a feat for many years. But it also happens differently: being offended, a person withdraws and becomes bitter in his offense, and not only those who offended, but also everyone else is no longer nice to him. And such a person really feels bad in the Church... However, he won’t feel good in any other place either.

However, it’s easy to talk about others, but what have I managed to do myself, having been a church worker for 4 years? In the past, I had big problems in relationships both with myself and with others. I experienced conflicts very painfully, my, as it seemed to me then, “unacceptance” by people, I was tormented by this disorder in my life. And when I finally crossed the threshold of the diocesan administration, I decided: well, here everything will definitely be in exceptional order. Here I am in my place, and in any situation I will be, if not at the top, then at least at a decent level.

Alas! Reality quickly humbled me, depriving me of naive and proud hopes. But she also revealed something else to me. It turns out that in the Church you don’t need to create a positive image for yourself. There is no need to think at all about what opinion of yourself you managed to instill in others here. Just as there is no need to try to make a favorable impression on the priest during confession.

In the Church, you just need to see and understand how much you yourself do not correspond to what you are involved in, what - willingly or unwillingly, to one degree or another - you preach. After all, both the candle maker and the cleaning lady in the church also, to some extent, preach. As a last resort, they are called upon at least not to lead Christians into temptation with their behavior, attitude towards people, and so on. What then can we say about a journalist or a catechist? Their responsibility is even greater. Even just asking questions to a priest or bishop, recording a conversation with him for a newspaper or TV show, we must necessarily feel what an abyss separates these questions and answers from what we really are. The priest celebrating the Eucharist should experience the same thing - although probably to a much greater extent... And it’s a disaster if he doesn’t. This inconsistency of ours is so terrible in fact that we just need to give up on all our reputations and positive images. This is what changes for a person when he comes to work in the Church.

Someone will ask: what if a believer works in a regular school, or, say, in a hairdresser, is this path of knowledge blocked for him? No, of course not. But here, in the “spiritual department” - in my opinion, at least, and based on my experience - understanding comes much faster. In which room are we more likely to find a lost item - a dimly lit one or a brightly lit one?

At some point, with God’s help, I realized (to what extent I fulfilled it, I don’t know; maybe it just seems to me that I’m trying to fulfill it!) one thing: work in the Church is impossible without personal church life and without constant internal, spiritual work, that work , to which the Church has called each of its children since ancient times. If you do not constantly make these efforts, even if they are inept and imperfect, you will begin to have a split personality. And you will gradually turn into a functionary. You can write “church functionary” or even “Orthodox,” but these words must be in quotation marks. Or - another option: you will find yourself in a dead end of “unhappy consciousness”, you will be tormented by your own falsehood and guilt in front of everyone. Finally, the third option: you just go out, throw yourself out of the Church - like out of an airplane without a parachute. Not only from the church structure in which you work, but also from the Church in general. This threatens both the laity working in the Church and those in the ranks. At least two young priests and one seminarian told me about this threat, in other words, temptation. But they were able, thank God, to correctly understand their situation and find a way out. But one of my acquaintances, a deacon, also very young, preferred, as he put it, “to get off the train before the train reached a dead end.” I did not have frank conversations with him, but I dare to suggest: having sincerely believed and come to the Church, he simply did not understand in time, and no one prompted him, that the external events of his life - studying at the seminary, graduating from it, being ordained - should be inseparable from the internal process of spiritual activity.

Without this process, without spiritual work, it is probably impossible to move from the consciousness of one’s own imperfection to non-judgment and forgiveness of others. And without forgiveness at our work it is impossible... I again say something strange: why exactly “at our work”, a Christian cannot live without it anywhere at all. But here is the same metaphor with a brightly lit room in which everything is especially clearly visible. For the work that we have to do together with others in the world, normal, correct relationships are sufficient. And the work that we do here in the Church requires us to love each other. Here it is appropriate to recall that the word “collaborator”, familiar to our ears, came from monastic usage and was once synonymous with the word “brother”. This means that our work is initially brotherly and sisterly. Therefore, you have to forgive, love, and - this is mandatory - see the good in every person first of all, and what traumatizes, frightens, irritates you in him - secondly.

Is the Church, as a place of work, different from any other place of work for the better - if we mean the psychological climate and attitude towards people? In my opinion, it is different. No matter how difficult the character of the person working here is - whether he is a caretaker in a church, the head of the chancellery in a monastery, or the head of a diocesan department - this person knows what sin, repentance, repentance and humility are. For him, looking back at himself, reproaching himself, asking for forgiveness is not an absurd thought, but something natural and proper. The same as forgiving your neighbor. Hence, there is a high probability that the conflict that has occurred will not go into a tailspin and will not fester for many years, like an unhealed ulcer. Believers generally come out of conflicts much easier than people who are undecided in this sense. Although, unfortunately, they are not always able to do this...

How is Christian love combined with the functions of an administrator, with the demands on people necessary at work? It’s difficult for me to answer this question; I don’t have such experience myself. Therefore, I asked two clergy to answer this, and at the same time, other frequently asked questions about working in the Church.

Priest Mikhail Bogatyrev
Priest Mikhail Bogatyrev, rector of the church in the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir
- The rector really has to combine things that are in principle incompatible: Christian love and the necessary administrative demands. Demanding, scolding, punishing, warning, dismissing, and finally, that is, doing what is sometimes absolutely necessary - the abbot oversteps himself. He understands: if you leave this person here now, at work in the church, then because of him many will suffer, and perhaps even leave the Church. And the abbot does what he must, but then does not sleep at night. This also happens: a person comes and asks for forgiveness, promises not to allow such things to happen again. And it seems that his repentance is sincere, but... this is not the first time this has happened. No wonder: every priest knows that a person can repent of the same sins many times, sometimes for decades. The Lord forgives the repentant and commands us to forgive, but what if we are not talking about my personal, for example, grievances, but about the good of the Church, about the fate of many people? Can I forgive and not fire (and if I have already fired, then hire back) a person who constantly sins with rudeness towards people, irritability, short temper, anger? Of course, there are different situations and different people. Some people simply cannot control their nerves or cannot cope with their life situation, while others are boorish, as they now say, “in life.” But by forgiving, giving another chance, the abbot always takes risks and always takes responsibility.

This is our cross, the cross of priests, rectors, those who have to combine pastoral service with administrative functions - functions, in principle, secular ones. And I’m unlikely to be able to combine it myself. It probably doesn't work. This is as difficult as not being distracted during the Divine Liturgy, if you know that immediately after you have to run to the Registration Chamber, meet with a potential donor, and solve some economic problems. I can’t completely cut it off from myself during the service and get involved in these problems immediately after it. Therefore, for me the most fertile days are Saturday and Sunday. I can think about nothing but worship, except the Eucharist, and I feel very good. And when I am immersed in all these financial and economic problems, I catch myself not remembering the Liturgy, I simply cannot think about it now, I am far from it. And here there is only one salvation - confession. There are simply no other ways to calm your own Christian conscience. The work of a rector deprives a person of spiritual peace, that very “spirit of peace” that Seraphim of Sarov spoke about. Maybe some people manage to combine these things harmoniously, but for me, no, for me these things remain polar.

When people come to work in the Church, they discover something completely new, a world of new problems. Previously, even when they were only parishioners, it seemed to them that here, inside the Church, everyone was doing nothing but loving each other. They bow, beam with smiles, and say: “God bless!” - “For the glory of God.” There is piety and decorum in everything... A man takes up his duties with great zeal - why, he was taken into the “holy of holies”! And suddenly a kind of cold shower hits him. It turns out that here “everything is the same as everywhere else”! Even the accountant’s demand to account for the spent parish funds sometimes causes resentment: how can this be, we are in the Church, do they really not trust me here? In addition, it turns out that relations between people here in the Church are not always peaceful and pleasant. And the person becomes disappointed. It happens that a person quits his “church” job and then stops coming to church, that is, he doesn’t want to be a parishioner.

A crisis of disappointment in church life is a very difficult moment in a person’s life; it must be experienced and endured. Of course, we - I mean now both myself and many priests I know - try to make sure that a person does not find himself in a test beyond his strength. But life is life. Therefore, when a person comes to me for a blessing to work in the Church - anyone, a watchman, a cook, a candle maker - I always say: prepare your soul for temptation. What you imagine now and what is in reality are not exactly the same thing.

What could be the readiness of the soul for temptation? What should a person remember? That work in the Church is service to God. And serving God, no matter where and how it is carried out, cannot be a simple and easy matter - never. Those who sincerely want to serve God always face many more obstacles than those who serve “this visible life.” After all, if we work for God, we cannot tell Him: “That’s it, Lord, I worked for You for 8 hours, and now I will, like a normal person, rest, and tomorrow I have a day off.” Or: “Lord, they didn’t create conditions for me to work, so I’m not responsible for anything.” You need to give to the Lord not 8 hours a day, but your whole life, regardless of the conditions.

I can say with confidence that none of the employees of the diocesan administration or parish came here just for a salary. Although any of them needs money no less than anyone else. People come to us, as a rule, who have already formed their worldview and found the meaning of life. And if some kind of trouble happens, if a conflict arises, you just need to remember why you came here, for what. The shortcomings, sins, human infirmities of your boss or someone with whom you have to work cannot cancel out this goal for you - to serve the Church, and therefore God. In fact, our main boss and our main assistant here is Him. And we shouldn’t forget about this. We must think about how exactly to obey Him, how to fulfill His will, how to please Him with our modest work and contribution. If this is precisely the main thing for you, human weaknesses and all sorts of boss’s antics are not so scary for you: they are only a reason to fulfill God’s will. In the world, a foolish boss can take away a person’s desire to work, but no one and nothing can take away a person’s desire to work for the Lord unless the person himself wants it.

Archpriest Sergius Shturbabin

Archpriest Sergius Shturbabin, rector of the church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows”, head of the diocesan department of religious education and catechesis.

– It is possible to combine Christian love for a person with the performance of administrative functions, provided that the leader working in the Church is, firstly, a Christian, and secondly, a decent person; if he absorbed certain things, such as respectful attitude towards people, with his mother’s milk; if he has the skill of having a friendly attitude towards every person.

Of course, there are very difficult moments: when a person clearly fails to cope with his task, does not live up to the expectations placed on him. Maybe he lacks education, maybe this is due to some of his personal weaknesses. This situation is very difficult. However, you can always explain this to your subordinate in a humane way. Such things as anger, irritation, a deliberately harsh, harsh tone - these are not only for the leader of a church service, they should be excluded and forgotten for every Christian. The fact that a person working under my leadership brought me to the point of white heat only means that it is not difficult to bring me to this point, in other words, that I have no patience. Or I poorly organized the work of the team, did not clearly explain to people what was required of them, did not monitor their work on time, which led to relaxation and disorganization. If something doesn’t work out for your subordinate, you must definitely look for your fault.

As for the “crisis of disappointment in church life,” of course, such things happen to new Christians. But here it is important to explain that ordinary people come to the Church from the world, each with their own sins, weaknesses and problems. And they, willingly or unwillingly, bring this into the communication of people in the Church. You need to be prepared for this, and the most important thing is that with every offense, every conflict, you need to look back at yourself, at your own weaknesses, sins and problems. And ask each other for forgiveness more often. Let's think about it, does it happen that a conflict occurred only through the fault of one side? Always due to the fault of both, or all parties (because there are not always only two of them). Each of us has our own idea of ​​what needs to be done and how, what is right and what is wrong. But no one can be absolutely right, no one has the ultimate truth. It is important to remember this, but the manager’s task is to build relationships in such a way that no conflicts arise.

The church as a place of work is certainly different from other places. Still, we don’t have much here that is typical for worldly organizations: unhealthy competition, envy, denunciations, meanness. At least I didn't have to deal with that here. And as for those things that one has to face... A Christian must perceive his entire life as a school of Christian life, as a continuous test of the Christian conscience. He is constantly in a situation of choice. And in this sense, it is not so important where exactly a Christian works - directly in the Church or somewhere else in the world. Everywhere this person must be attentive and demanding of himself. Hence the understanding of others, condescension towards their weaknesses. Then it is possible to understand where and what the other person is doing wrong, and try to help him. Everything is a school, including joint work for the benefit of the Church.

* * *

Listening to the first of my interlocutors, Father Mikhail, I suddenly thought that the words “prepare your soul for temptation” were already familiar to me. Where are they from? Book of Jesus, son of Sirach, chapter 2: “If you are about to serve the Lord God, then prepare your soul for temptation: guide your heart and be strong, and do not be embarrassed during the visit; cleave to Him and do not retreat, so that you may be exalted in the end. Whatever happens to you, accept it willingly, and be patient in the vicissitudes of your humiliation, for gold is tested in fire, and people pleasing to God are tested in the crucible of humiliation. Trust Him and He will protect you; direct your ways and trust in Him..."

Child in the temple

We have already told you how to enter the church correctly. We also figured out how to behave in the service. But what should you do when you come to church with a child? If everything is clear with a baby - he sleeps in the arms of his mother or father, then a preschooler and primary school child will not behave so calmly.

First of all, it is necessary to ensure that the descendant does not run around the temple, making loud screams. Alas, this is simply a scourge in the modern church. Parents pray - children run and scream until one of the parishioners or ministers reprimands the parents. Moms and dads, keep an eye on the kids. If they are naughty, do not want to obey, violate the majesty of the service with their shouts and distract the worshipers, it is necessary to remove them from the temple.

Maria, 27 years old

Candlestick of the house church of the holy martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosova

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

I won’t say that there was no faith in my life before, and then one day it appeared. I was baptized in infancy, after which my grandmother took me to church several times a year. I started going there independently and consciously at the age of fifteen - at first it was sporadically, then more and more regularly, and after the entrance exams to the university I became a permanent parishioner in our church.

Several years passed like this, then I suddenly found myself without a job. While I was thinking about where to go and what prospects there were, I was invited to work in a candle shop. What was needed was a person not from outside, but from the parish.

You don’t just sit here and sell something - this is not the job of a seller as such . This is immediately the work of a psychologist, consultant, and even a catechist . People come and ask all kinds of questions, sometimes very strange, wild or very banal questions. For example: “Do you have an icon for everything?”, “And for wealth?”, “How can I order a prayer service so that my loan will be approved?”

And you are obliged to answer to the best of your education, adequacy and knowledge of church life. When the question is very complex or a person just needs to talk to him, it is better to send him to a priest if you do not know a definite answer. And this is not so much the area of ​​catechesis as of psychology. People come and talk about their whole lives, about their troubles, about how something didn’t work out for them or about family problems.

You need to be patient with people and their weaknesses . You can’t sit there looking like you know everything better than anyone here, but complete ignoramuses come to you, you can’t treat them condescendingly. We must try to always be welcoming and friendly.

I won’t say that a candle box worker must have super-deep theological knowledge, but he must know the basis of the doctrine firmly. So that he himself does not give rise to even small superstitions in people. Because you have no right to talk nonsense . Naturally, you need to know the Catechism very well in order to answer the simplest questions.

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

The most difficult thing is interaction with inadequate or simply sick people . Sometimes you just don’t know how to behave. You feel that a person can suddenly become aggressive. When such people come, it is quite a strong nervous tension.

The very opportunity to talk about Christianity inspires me . You helped a person understand something, part with a small delusion that was poisoning his life. I am very happy when people buy crosses for christenings. It's always very nice.

It’s great when you have something that a person has been looking for for a long time and could not find in other places, but we have it. Most often this is a rare icon of a saint or a personal icon.

I think it's somewhere between work and service . You see, to call this service with a capital M means to unjustifiably elevate oneself. The priest’s service is indeed many times more difficult for him than for any other person working in the church.

I can say with confidence that this definitely cannot be called a profession. Of course, this is work, in the most ordinary, literal sense of the word - you come at a certain time and fulfill obligations to sell goods and services, but also service, of course. If a person consciously does this all his life and this is his main occupation, then perhaps one can say so. But this is very rare. Basically, people combine work in a church shop with other activities.

I do not set myself any great task of Orthodox education, because thousands of people are already working on this. But there are some little things and conventions in which I consider it my duty to help understand and explain that God is not in candles and not in notes. We need to slowly move away from this “magical” attitude towards simple ritual moments.

A man of about forty, who looks Japanese, periodically comes to see us. Each time he gives me money and a very neatly printed piece of paper in a file, on which is written the magpie “for the repose” with photographs of several Japanese people and their Orthodox names. Apparently, he was asked, and he regularly comes to do this.

The rest of the time I like to travel around the world and the country, I am seriously interested in cinema and read a lot. I regularly write about all this on my blog for myself and my friends who are interested in my texts.